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Rebel Transmissions: Droids In Distress

So it’s time once again for another Rebel Transmission! A fantastic-ly fun episode with humor, heart, seriously close calls, and of course, a couple of familiar droids! And yeah I don’t know why I’m having trouble opening up this post right now… er… let’s just cut to the chase and take a deeper look at Droids In Distress!Note: Contains spoilers from Episode IV, the first four episodes of Droids, and Rebels episodes Spark Of Rebellion and Droids In Distress

So here we are, back with the crew of the Ghost, as they’re being chased by TIE fighters and an Imperial Star Destroyer! Just the normal everyday routine for these guys, NBD. But that’s what hyperspace is for! With that out of the way, our heroes have time to focus on the other important matter at hand… the matter of money. It’s not easy feeding (and arming) a family of five (and fueling a ship) in the galaxy these days (especially when they’re against the Empire), so Kanan makes the suggestion “why not go and grab some weapons to sell to Vizago?”. Zeb isn’t too keen on the concept, but it’s either that or they’re giving up the Ghost… quite literally. So off to the weapon-nabbing races it is!
And this time, our heroes are taking the bus. Or technically the public transport shuttles. Yup, just the norm around here. So an Imperial senator is also on the shuttle, with a non-Basic-speaking comrade, and where there are failures to communicate, a protocol droid is necessary… enter C-3PO! And R2-D2! And I’m all “OHMYGOSH DEH DROIDSEHS!! …Wait they’re hanging out with this Imperial girl? What’s up with that?”. Well, we shall soon see. Now, originally, when I’d heard that Threepio and Artoo were going to be joining us at some juncture in the show, I really really had my fingers crossed that we’d see a character from the 80’s Droids cartoon. The show also takes place before Episode IV, and we meet a rebel or two ourselves out there. And what else would explain why these two aren’t in the care of Captain Antilles or the Organas? How cool would it be to see Kea Moll or Mungo Baobab or whoever in the flesh out here! But as I was watching this, I realized that those guys being involved at this point wouldn’t line up; the droids met Kea Moll in the first few episodes, and she happened to be a member of the growing Rebel Alliance, but at this juncture there is no official Rebel Alliance — just a few who believe that freedom is everyone’s fight (anyone catch the reference? anyone? no one? *sigh*). So yeah maybe we’ll meet some of these heroes in the future, but not yet, at least, probably not hanging out with the droid duo.
Anywayyyy, back to the episode. Man, if everything that conspired really was all to Kanan’s plan… he’s really really good. Our heroes were just playing the role of normal bus passengers, but Chopper appeared to have been in a “mood” and started playing the game of “I’m-not-touching-you…” with Ezra XD OK so looking back it seems to have been all part of the plan, so Ezra could complain and they could make a point to separate the senator from her protocol droid so in turn Sabine could get the dirt in the business of translating, but at the time I had no clue. Either way, it’s downright hilarious to watch! And then when Chopper starts hitting Ezra with a little electricity… ermagosh aren’t you glad your kids don’t do that in the backseat on long trips? Hehe. So that scuffle leads to all the “astromechs” in the passenger area being stuck in the back (Threepio did not like being mistaken for an astromech). And now what’s a senator to do? Enter Sabine, convienently located one seat behind them. One thing we learned from the last episode was that she understands Wookiees, which was pretty impressive, but now she offers up her abilities in translating this fellow’s language to the senator. Multitalentedddd the girl is!! Of course, all of this was in picking up exactly where a certain weapons shipment would be 🙂 Question is, if the whole thing about her being a level five student at the Imperial Academy isn’t true… how does she know all these random languages? Something to query about.
Meanwhiles, Threepio was no enjoying sitting backseat with Artoo and Chopper. The astromechs were just talking about something and then a fight sorta broke out and they started shoving each other. It makes me laugh hearing Threepio say “See Artoo? Here’s a droid with manners!”; pshh Chopper? Mannerly? As if! Artoo just rolls his dome, mentally rolling his eyes if he had them.
Ah yes, so the plan was falling into place just perfectly. Now Sabine knew where they’d be needing to go, and she may have mistranslated as such for the good senator hehehe. Now it’s Ezra’s turn to get to work…
As we can see, Ezra’s not exactly impressed with his time on the Ghost so far. He signed up for Jedi training, not exactly… well, stealing junk. But here he is all the same, crawling through the vents, leaping over buildings, doing his thing as per us’. But thanks to him, he was able to sneak into Bay 7 and get the door opened for his crew. And in the bay lies crates among crates of a very nasty variety of blasters. Blasters that Zeb is far from thrilled to see. And did I mention that they’re kinda banned? O.O But they’ve got more trouble than the bargained for… the senator figured out that Bay 17 was not the right one. Thank goodness good ol’ Chopper decided to slow the Imperials down and started another “brawl” with Artoo! Which kinda worked up until the Imperial recognized the droid and realized something was really up. And Chopper seems to be saying “NO WAIT WAIT WAIT! I’M NOT THE SAME DROID! I’M ANOTHER ONE! DON’T GO TO BAY 17! Aw dang.”. Well you tried, little buddy.
So it takes about three seconds for the Stormtroopers to show up and catch our heroes in the act. But that’s where Zeb comes in, doing his awesome thing and throwing them ‘troopers like footballs! As well as punching, kicking, and some prod-staff-swinging. In the midst of all the insanity, Threepio’s in a bit of a panic, as he has no idea what to do in this sort of situation. But Artoo has a plan of his own, and it involves following Chopper. And despite his mixed feelings about it, Threepio follows the astromechs aboard the Ghost as our heroes make a dash for it.
Onboard, Chopper’s “friends” don’t quite get the welcome they might’ve wanted… restraining bolts whoohoo. But of course no one listens to Threepio, who might’ve had some things he wanted to point out to these “ruffians”. Oh, and Sabine gets the idea that maybe Vizago would be interested in buying the droids, too. So yeah this is not how Threepio had planned his day to go…
Now in the midst of all this, Zeb is really not sure if they should be selling the disruptors, unsure of whose hands they might fall into. Kanan and Sabine aren’t too worried; as long as the Empire doesn’t have them, that’s what counts right? Zeb isn’t too sure. Next thing we know, it seems Zeb is in major need of some alone time and kicks Ezra out of their shared quarters. Ezra was not having it, but that was before Hera told him a little of what’s bothering Zeb. Those disruptors were the Empire’s choice weapon when it came to destroying the majority of the Lasat people. Oh gosh my heart so goes out to Zeb right now… Empire y u b such jerks?! 😦 Ugh sorry not sorry. But we’ll have to save this conversation for later, as the Ghost has landed on Lothal at last, ready to deliver the goods to their Gothal(?) business partner. It’s in these last few moments aboard that Sabine finds out that Artoo is actually on a different sort of mission, and that his owner has some serious ca$h. So wait Sabine can understand astromechs too?! Wow! Oh wait… so do, evidently Hera, Luke, Anakin, and a bunch of others. Well, it’s still cool anyway. So, even with Zeb’s discomfort with the concept, Kanan and the crew are still about to hand over the guns to Vizago. But no one called for Threepio to make a huge mistake in all of this… the golden droid may have made a distress call to the Empire, making a point he’d been kidnapped a bunch of thieves. And guess who was at the other end of the line? Agent Kallus. *Sigh* of course… why Threepio, why?? I’m guessing he has some trust issues. Or maybe some memory issues, considering he has no clue whose side he’s on. Either way, that is not good for our Rebels.
Sooo yeah they were just about to get that long-awaited, much-needed moola from Vizago when the Empire shows up. And Vizago makes a run for it, naturally. Man, that guy is about as shallow as they come, yet he’s still a rather entertaining character. OK but yeah… now it becomes clear that destroying those disruptors is how it’s gonna go down. And then comes to the party a couple of predecessors to the AT-STs, andddd that Imperial ship, loaded from top to bottom with Stormtroopers and our very own Agent Kallus. I’ll go make some more ice. Yeahhh Threepio figured it out pretty quickly that Stormtroopers are indeed the bad guys. That droid can sure run when he wants to!
But in the midst of all this, in comes Kallus, holding a electric-prod-staff-thing, and igniting a little head-on fight with Zeb. Needless to say, Orellios couldn’t back away from a fight, especially not with some punk Imperial who’s throwing around Zeb’s hometown’s weapon-of-choice. This duel is pretty incredible to watch, reminding me of some of the scarily intense duels of The Clone Wars. Zeb comes out on top for a while and does a good job at giving Kallus a run for his money. And man, the minute Kallus starts doing his Imperial thing of getting personal with his badmouthing and talking all about the small part he played in killing off the Lasats, oooooooh man Zeb is downright furious, which is somewhat of an advantage. But it doesn’t last too long before Kallus got the upper hand and knocked the Lasat to his knees. And one more blow would’ve been the end of him. Man I will never forget how on the edge of my seat I was at this point. I had no clue how this was going to fan out, and I really seriously thought Zeb was about to die. But in the heat of the moment, Ezra does what he had no clue he was capable of… he Force-pushes Kallus into a building at the last second! Kanan’s like “Danggggg…” and Ezra’s like “Whut did I just do…?”. The others rush aboard while Kanan runs off to get Zeb. Oh right, they did successfully blow up all those disruptors, btw, but I should’t have to tell you that. So yeah, even just seeing Zeb nearly dead had me worried for him. But the two made it just in time… just as Kallus woke up. Thankfully, Zeb will make it, thanks to a little unexpected help from Ezra. And now, Kanan’s making a point to start the potential Padawan’s training the next day 🙂 Ermagosh that silent “thanks” and “anytime brotha” between Ezra and Zeb about made me start tearing up… ^w^ But there’s still one last thing to do… getting the droid duo home.
And while I might’ve suspected it, I was hugely happy to see Bail Organa the one reuniting with Threepio and Artoo! Knowing what ultimately happens to him in Episode IV, I was really glad we get to see him again, and wearing a fantastic sweater 🙂 Man, anyone ever wonder if maybe Bail and Kanan had run into each other during the Clone Wars? Or even before then? Kanan takes notice of the Jedi-ism Senator Organa says, but otherwise doesn’t seem to pick up on it. Isn’t it funny how this simple kind act of returning the droids would be returned by getting everything they needed? Yeahh I can’t help but get all feely at their brief interchange. And now, Bail turns to Artoo, wanting to know what he learned about this small group of rebels…
So WOW! This episode is seriously amazing! One of the highlights about this one for me would have to be getting to know more about Zeb. I mean, I’m amazed at how the folks at Lucasfilm have made me love him more than I ever thought I would. The way they make him emotionally relatable, yet also a bit of a frighteningly fierce fighter, is so awesome. You both want to hug him and keep your distance from him at the same time, if that makes any sense 🙂 So yeah anyway, two thumbs up for the guys behind Rebels, and to this incredible episode itself! Who knows what adventures await us next?